“A Family Man” (originally titled as “The Headhunter's Calling” for the production purposes) is a drama film released back in July of the current year after having been toured on festivals since 2016. I missed the movie in theatres because the trailer didn’t seem at all inviting to me to see it on the big screen. So later I just forgot about it until it resurfaced during one of the local cinema festivals. This time I decided to give it a chance.
The movie is pretty heavy on the emotional side and if you’re eyes are easily leaking should there be a hint on some health- issues drama, then it will most definitely give you the ride into the “Tears-turning-into-Flood-town”.
You're welcome to see the trailer below:
The director of the film is Mark Williams and it’s his first directorial work, the script is essentially written by Bill Dubuque. It stars Gerard Butler, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Alison Brie, Anupam Kher, Gretchen Mol and others.
The plot revolves around the corporate Headhunter Dane Jensen who is extremely passionate about his work. Everyday he is ready to do the battles that are an inseparable part of his profession. He is a fighter and it pays off. He is the best at his firm and maybe even on entire Wall Street. There’s a downside to his success though; his wife and kids often miss him on the family get-togethers and events because he can’t attend due to circumstances connected to his job. But when his family faces the most critical time ever imagined he struggles to find that fighter in him that used to be ready to conquer the world. He is at the crossroad and needs to make some tough choices.
As you may see if we put the plot into the narrative, it doesn’t seem very original. We’ve seen a lot of films with family crisis that include some health-failing issues. But here this is not what matters. It is all about the contents and acting performance that build up the great story.
I confess that Gerard Butler is not one of my favorite actors, at least lately. I think it has something to do with his involvement with “The Gods of Egypt” project that was a total let-down and may have ended his carrier as a high-profile Hollywood actor. So basically I didn’t expect anything out of the ordinary of him. But here he actually shines! He’s completely in his element. Moreover, after this I think he should do the drama thing more than anything else now. It’s only natural for the former aging “sex symbols” to turn to drama. It gives them a chance to develop as actors. And I’m glad he did that, because “A Family Man” opened his potential significantly. I hope to see him doing something like that again soon.
All of the actors did their job brilliantly. The actress Gretchen Mol that played the wife of Dane was natural in her role. Both of them worked well together and I did believe that it was a married couple.
Willem Defoe, Alfred Molina and Allison Brie are not as much in this movie but they manage to deliver their characters with expected diligence and professionalism.
The general idea that comes to mind after having watched the movie a few days ago is that the life is unpredictable even when you think that everything goes according to the certain plan. Money is essential to our living and I can’t say that it’s not important because it may solve a lot of problems, but still it shouldn’t be the main goal of one’s life. While racing for a most valuable prize we can lose something very dear to our hearts along the way. The best thing we can manage is to balance all the aspects of our life. Time-management is something we all should learn, so as to be able to continue our jobs and fully carry on being a family person.
I was surprised to see the low ratings on the film (only 3.4/10 on Rotten Tomatoes) since it was interesting for me to watch and made me cry pretty badly. I guess we’ve seen too many movies with similar stories before so the audience became very selective and can afford to compare one project to another. To me the film was just a stand-alone show that I truly enjoyed watching. I don’t want to make comparisons. It has both funny moments as well as the sad ones and that’s how our lives are in reality.
So if you want to take my advice then don’t listen to anyone and just watch the movie in any company. Or if you’re a shy type and don’t like to show your tears then just see it alone, it’ll give some food for thinking.
Thank you for reading this review and I wish you more good movies!
